Guild Wars 2

I mained a necro. When I heard they were going to nerf terror after they buffed us 2 weeks ago, I decided to finish leveling my guardian and play it instead.

It’s very possible that I just suck but after all that time playing necro and doing -decent- while it was struggling, I’d figure I could at least hold one person from a point.

It’s terrible, though. I feel like paper. I’ve tried all the specs I’ve found here related to sPvP (a lot from Silven’s post), and the burst ones are nice but none of them will kill someone, they get them down to 10-20% if I pull it all off, then the opponent kills me because by then I have 8 conditions on me and I’m nearly dead.

I was very interested in being support/healy too, but even when I took every healing related trait I could find and paired it with Dwayna runes and Cleric’s amulet, two enemies could still come along and burst me down in seconds.

Are other people having trouble with Guardian in PvP or am I doing something terribly wrong? I really want help lol.

I’m not picky, I’d enjoy being a bunker or full dps or anything in between, I just want to be able to play some spvp once a day and get my dailies done without having to switch to my necro to get Top Stats.

Are there good guides for PvP that I’m missing? Any help would be appreciated!

As i learned in pvp, well timed dodge or invulnerability (aka renewed focus and shelter) are much more important than any heals we have or defensive spell, you can still eat 8k+ backstabs or warrior axe f1 with 3k toughtnes. And its pretty logical if 2 glass canon enemies come that they will kill you if you are alone, you are not superman after all and this game tends to be quite balanced. If they killed you in sec than you are doing something wrong :p …. we usualy have invulnerability on shelter, renewed focus, at least 2 dodges …. that alone could let you live at least some time.

Guards have quite some viable builds and i cycle around and many times come topish on stats … so class is not a problem, you just need to play more to get used to it.

As the game has progressed, so have the players. At release a lot of people didn’t understand mechanics or other professions very well and all they knew was what was advertised.

Guardians were advertised as defensive front line support, so everyone believed that guardians were impossible to kill. Now they know the tricks and understand how to pressure the guard well.

We are still very defensive in nature, but understand what the other classes are doing and you can gain a lot of sustain.

I admit, I find it hard to not get blasted by tons of necro conditions, but the big wells on the ground are easy enough to stay out of.

Same goes for the classic 100b warrior, or a mesmer with clones running at you. Know the tells and dodge/block the big stuff. The rest of the attacks you can survive and heal through for the most part.

I’m not saying guardians are the end all of bunkering, but it does take a little bit more effort now than it did at release.

What give us sustain is:

• Protection (shouts/hammer)
• Healing (AH for team/MF for solo/Regen in general)
• Dodges (Vigor on crit/energy sigils)
• Blind/Block/Invulnerables (Aegis/Renewed Focus/Shelter)
• Control (knock backs/knock downs/Wards)
• Stability

What makes us strong as bunkers is the group retaliation honestly.

If you can survive long enough for your team to come back and then have retal on everyone while the attacking team is trying to AE the point, they end up killing themselves on retal.

I find that ranged and conditions are really painful for guardians, while melee is easier to handle.

Conditions we are better off than other professions at cleansing, but we have a breaking point and there are far more condition applications than condition removals. So use them wisely and watch the high stacks of bleeds, but ignore the low stacks if you can. Try to cleanse poison off before a heal also.

Ranged attacks are still prone to retaliation, but often come stacked with conditions, see above. Other than that you can situationally change up your utilities for wall of reflection or use things like sword to handle those. Line of sight if you can also.

Also never underestimate the viability of getting off the point to survive.

You can leave the point to run people off and stay out of dangerous AE and then get back on the point when the danger is over. You can let it uncap for a few seconds and stay contested…it’s ok really.

If you stay on the point and front the damage and die, you just gave them the point straight up. Keeping it contested at least makes it so both teams are barred from getting points from that node, making it neutral. Then you can buy time for your team to come help and reclaim that point.

CMF.5461:

As the game has progressed, so have the players. At release a lot of people didn’t understand mechanics or other professions very well and all they knew was what was advertised.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. I also think that part of the problem is the Guardian bunker isn’t the best anymore. At least in my opinion. There are other professions that can bunker as well, or better, and yet can still maintain kill pressure.

Thanks for the responses.

So what is the current “meta” guardian? Is it bunker? I’ve seen build links for bunkers that are usually hammer/staff or hammer/scepter-shield. But I don’t understand how to bunker with these. (I feel like a super noob)

I get that hammer/staff/shield can all knock people off points and block them, but these things only last for 2-6 seconds, people just come right back after that and burst my 13k health down.

Is there any way to have fun playing solo as a bunker? Or is there another meta made for solo play?

Thanks!

Meta is bunker for guardians, as much as I try to avoid playing it.

There are a few variations on weapons, and some are map dependent.

Getting people off the point to cap or make it contested is crucial in buying time in the game. As far as them getting back up to burst you down in 13k, no one can handle all the damage in this game. You “will” die.

Trick is knowing how to read and avoid some of the tell tale attacks that will set you up for a lot of damage.

If you get immobilized or knocked down, expect a lot of burst coming your way. Use a stun break/stability/condition removal and get out, dodging if you have to, and if it’s really bad use shelter or renewed focus if you need.

A lot of attacks have a wind up animation, or a set up move before the burst, so know how to see and anticipate those as well.

Recent example tonight, i was holding mid point (was a hot join, nothing special) and a rifle warrior was rushing me. The burst move on a rifle warrior can knock your health down really low if you let them land it.

I was playing around with sword/shield, so every time he stopped firing and just stood there pointing his gun at me, I would use a projectile block. The rest of his attacks I could survive through with little to no effort. (can’t the move when using the aimed shot?)

Other examples are if fighting thieves. If they invis, they typically have a couple of second before they attack, as they are setting up a rotation of hits/evades/invis. You can get a feel for it and anticipate the next hit and screw up their rotation with a block.

If people are about to do a multi hit, mutli target attack to a group, use retaliation and watch them kill themselves.

Little things here and there add up.

You should be able to bunker against 1 target and sustain. If you are not then you are getting out played. Although some condition heavy builds like necro or some of the engineers can give you problems.

Two targets, is doable, but over time you will find yourself struggling. Three targets or more you will want to get help quickly, unless you can severely out play them all. If you can then rock on

Also, in hot joins, bunkering is really under rated. The zerg will typically just mow you down, and normally your team will not be there to help you. This is played different in tournaments that are organized.

Right now I see guardian as less of a solo bunker and more of a team fight/bunker hybrid. I think they excel more when around other team members. Other classes can solo bunker better than a guardian with longer survival rate and more ability to kill.

To answer your question about another meta you can play for solo, Look at the triple meditation builds. Those are typically damage oriented with good survivability through monks focus and meditations. You will not be doing zomg 20k burst like a warrior or crazy backstabs, but you will be more aggressive with some good survivability.

If you’re new to bunker then I’d suggest to try first the more defensive and easier weapons to play. These are mace,focus,shield,sword. Combine Mace/Focus and Sword/shield. After you settled with guardian and how to survive long enough you can try on hammer or staff.

For solo play akka Hotjoin you should roll DPS guard with meditations as it is funnier and more mobile.

Would meditations be something like 0/30/30/5/5? And what kind of weapons would that use? I’ve had the most fun with scepter/torch and sword/focus as DPS but I still die so much I can’t break halfway up the leaderboard, so I feel like I’m doing something wrong.

Old but gold. Though it’s not really optimal for TPvP. For tournaments i’d suggest to run a bunker-build only.

On his channel he presents two other bunker builds (they are nearly the same today) and explains the advantages/disadvantages of it. A look at these vids mabye can help you a bit more detailed.

Thanks I will watch this later at work! Thanks so much for the fast responses guys, you’ve renewed my excitement for the guardian class!

^ This guy

Thanks guys I finally got top on the scoreboards in a match playing the spec from the 2nd video.

Thanks to y’all I’ve gone from wanting to just try a different class to liking so many different guardian builds I can’t decide which to play!

Thanks again!

hey Uurik, i actually wanted to recommend something like tapdatmouse’s build too.

i played with a
5/10/30/20/5 variation last night with buffed symbols (larger + healing) with full meditations instead of shouts and obviously, Monk’s Focus.

used 5 Warrior Runes + 1 Divinity Rune. Berserker ammy and jewel.
GS + Mace/Focus instead to add some burst dmg with Focus #5 (shield of wrath).
aaaaaaaaand snap. i just realized, i switched weapons and didn’t put sigils in.. DDDD:

also took Signet of Resolve for heal and then the Signet Recharge Reduction trait in Radiance. if i felt conditions weren’t as much as in issue, i would swap to Blind Exposure. also took Purity in Valor so that’s 2 conditions removed every 10s, adn then i had two active condition removals, where one was a mass condition converter.

i like playing with Meditations. JI is godsend in any form of PvP for the Guardian in my opinion. JI alogn with WW can help you land most hits on an unsuspecting or oterhwise distracted foe. and as i missed having stability (especially on Skyhammer!) smite condition as moer AoE burst, as well as condition removal, and Contemplation of Purity as more condition conversion as well as stun break and both heals i felt was more useful. so you can give it a shot too.

i face the same problem as you :PPP i keep switchnig builds, but when i do come back to this symbol build, it performs amazingly. the type i don’t enjoy AS much for the Guardian is the meta, bunkering :///

good luck and keep practicing!

key things to learn about the Guardian and sustainability from my perspective and experience:

• learn when to dodge
• use your blinds, blocks for the big hits
• defense only? bullkitten! often most of our seemingyl defensive skills can actually be offensive! vuln on blind traits for e.g. not only add DPS to you, but to your whole party! blocks? add burns to them. focus and mace block are both huge AoE bursts when they go off
• know how you can keep your health topped up – whether it be through Altrustic Healing, Monk’s Focus or using boon duration, virtues or healing power, experiment and find what you have fun most fun with! usually will be what you’re most successful with ; )) because you enjoy it, you keep practicing it!
• keep! the! pressure! up! often, i win fights when i am relentlessly, but not blindly, on the offense. force your opponents into the defensive. let them know they can’t mess with you, that they can’t take you down easy, and you still hit hard. if they flee, it’s up to you if you want to give chase, either way, you’ve held your own.
• if you ever plan to use the hammer, hamemr 3 and hammer 4 have huge windups, but hammer 4 is particularly useful to keep people off points. remember, you can hit Esc if you’re quick enough to put cancel the skill, to bait ou your oppoents last dodge or stability.. your skill will be put on a 3-4s cd, and after they’ve expensed their utilities, you can then knock ’em off or drop your hard hitters.
• be extremely aware of your surroundings. spatial awareness is the word? and always stay mobile. it’s helped me alot in my fights so you don’t get stuck and know when you can engage and when you should disengage.

I kinda know how you feel. Guardian has a low health pool, so if you get stunlocked and immobilized/crippled you have no quick means of escape.

However, you mentioned you tried playing a support role. I have been doing that currently for a while now. I found the power/meditation builds could do excellent damage, but your HP pool is really-really small and doesn’t hold well on mass conditions stacking.

Bunker builds are mostly for tpvp. They’re designed to hold a point while others arrive..if no one arrives, you will soon lose the point. (As is often the case in spvp.)

However if you play support the 8 vs 8 dynamic of spvp it is favourable. I use shield/scepter-staff. and usually get respectable points, sometimes top scorer, but the build lacks the satisfaction some people look for in, “I engaged, wasted and stomped that guy.” However due to how rank points are assigned if your applying AoE damage repeatedly you’ll still get awarded stomps even though you didn’t start the engagement, or finish it..you just contributed along the way.

Focus your position where your retail shouts, wards and might stack buff will get the most benefit. Target your immodbilize and knock back on high evasive people such as ele’s.

Always try to be around 2+ other players..this does pretty much make you a ganker..but we’ll call it the more polite support. Keep an eye on whose names your running close to and check the team list to keep an eye on their conditions. Use group stability on necromancers fear on point.

Playing this way I usually still get 160-210 points+anything from glory booster.

Avoid 1 vs 1..you can beat some people, but usually your just strong at defense and somebody else (Hopefully your team) will come along.

Playing spvp this way has actually made me enjoy guardian and spvp in general a lot more again. You’ve removed yourself from being a spike build, or a bunker..you’re just a high paced damage modifier.

Line of warding, shouts, shield knockback, well chosen weapon swap effects, AoE damage that buffs teams who pass through it make you a truly valuable player provided you have others around you.

I have found in spvp where I hang round and keep playing the same people over and over more or less that sooner rather than later higher ranked player (35+) soon target me first due to annoying wards and knockbacks and shouts that I’m applying in or around the node. It is a viable build, it’s just different to the regular high damage/high evade builds quite a few people like to play.

When I did support it was a symbol based build with altruistic healing. It worked well except when conditions came in because shouts don’t have very good condition removal (compared to meditations).

Since you run scepter/shield, what kind of build do you use with that since scepter doesn’t have a symbol?